EVERY Email Should be Optimized for Mobile

In a recent blog post, “How to Use Unsolicited Proposals,” I discussed the process of combing education with an offer and specific call to action to create an effective outbound marketing campaign to generate demand. One key area that I did not discuss, but should have, was optimizing the unsolicited proposal (UP) for email, specifically mobile. Because computing is moving away from the PC and toward devices (smartphones and tablets) – even Microsoft now says it is a “devices and services company” – optimizing every email for mobile is a good idea.

Most B2B marketers and sellers send UPs to prospects by email. UPs help sellers to initiate targeted conversations with prospects around specific business problems. Accordingly to digital marketing firm, Knotice, 36% of all B2B email is opened with a mobile device (26% with a smartphone and 10% with a tablet); up 27% year-over-year. If the current pace of growth continues, 45%+ of B2B users will be opening and reading email on mobile devices next year. An email not optimized for mobile could mean no customer response and increase the odds of a bad user experience.

Quick Tips
* CTA – Make buttons easy to find and push to avoid user frustration and navigation issues.
* Ergonomics – Put the CTA in screen locations that are comfortable for hitting with the thumb (not bottom right).
* Font – Use 14-point or higher for body and 30-point for header to avoid re-sizing issues.
* Format – Use multi-part MIME to assure content is available in either HTML or text formats.
* Layout – Use a simple, stacked layout as opposed to a multi-column layout.
* Message – Educate prospect how to solve problems, reduce costs or create impact.
* Subject – Make it compelling to signal to the prospect to open immediately (25-characters or less).
* Time – Understand the title of the target; e.g., CFO > email on desktop while VP of Sales > email on mobile.
* Width – Keep the width of the creative to 600 pixels or less to avoid re-formatting issues.

Nine out of ten email users check their messages on a smartphone or tablet every day. In addition, 64% of users say that they would either delete or ignore an email if it was difficult to read or hard to navigate on their device (Source: ReturnPath). B2B marketers can no longer make the assumption that mobile users will return to their desktop to engage in a full, rich email experience. B2B marketers then must commit to making mobile device email optimization a priority from the beginning. In the end, every email should always be optimized for mobile.